As some of you may remember, my son and I embarked on an ambitious plan to watch as many of the comic book superhero movies that we possibly could in one summer.

You can dig through the archives of this message board section to find the results of that effort.

I have decided to do it again, but with an expanded scope. I have added TV movies, animated movies and straight to video movies.

As before, I will be offering the goods and bads of each movie and offering up a final grade. the grades will be on an F through A+ scale. As I go, I will be ranking the movies in order from my favorite to my least favorite.

Now, truth to tell, there are a crap ton of movies to watch and I have less time than ever, so don't be expecting this to be a quick process.

The other difference is that I will be giving a sneak preview of the next four movies I will be watching so you will know what's coming.

So, sit back, relax and enjoy the show!

Oh, and, please feel free to comment. Other opinions are not only accepted, but welcomed and encouraged.

They absolutely sell out on the campiness. I mean, this movie doesn't even pretend to be something it is not. The filmmakers knew they were making something goofy and ridiculous and they absolutely went for it, and never failed to hit the mark. Some examples; There were title boards attached to all of the bat equipment and bad guy equipment so you knew what it was (Super molecular dust separator was one. Bat water faucet was another.)

The actors who portrayed Penguin (Burgess Meredith), Catwoman ( Lee Meriwether), Riddler (Frank Gorshin) and Joker (Cesar Romero) were actually good. They embodied the characters they were playing and hammed it up just as the material asked them to.

The sets were perfect and fit the campy style. Everything was all bright primary colors and flashing lights.

There is a scene where Batman is trying to get rid of a bomb that is sparking and about to blow up. He keeps running into things that impede his ability to throw the bomb ( a couple of nuns, a woman with a baby, two lovers in a canoe, a group of ducks). At one point, he even looks at the camera and says, "some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb" It is hilarious!

There are numerous double entendres throughout the movie that were suprising. There is a scene where Bruce Wayne is on a date with a disguised Catwoman that is fraught with them.

THE BAD:

Adam West is a joke. I mean, I realize that he is supposed to be campy and goofy, but he just sucks so bad. I kept wishing Robin and the bad guys would be the only characters.

The camp is just too ridiculous. example; a bad guy is jettisoned by a joker jack in the box through a window into the arms of an exploding octopus, Batman uses Bat shark repellant to do away with an exploding shark.

The fight scenes are awful. Just awful. The most poorly choreographed and executed fight scenes ever. It is obvious, I mean really obvious, that the actors are never hitting one another.

Batman's costume looks stupid.

CONCLUSION

As you can tell by my good and bad lists, there isn't really a lot to say. This was an absolutely ludicrous movie. while there were times I laughed and I did appreciate some of the performances, there just wasn't a lot to like. I could go on all day about one ridiculous scene after another that is worth watching for camp value.....but that is saying a lot. The only real reason to watch is for camp.Bad movie...but the fun moments keep it from being completely horrible.

I give it a D.

COMICS TO TRY IF YOU LIKED THIS MOVIE:Really, the best place to go for similar campy Batman and Robin stories in comics (IMO) is late 1950's and 1960's era BATMAN. Some the of the stores on here that have issues you can get are Titan Comics, Heroland Comics, Comics MD, Hutch's Comic Books and Green Bay Comics; Although there are many others.If those are too pricey, you can also try the current run of BATMAN '66 Which can be bought at Finar, Symbiotik comics, Cards, and Collectables and Read the Story (Play the Game), among others.

Hey, take it from a guy who used to host a weekly "Bad Movie Night", that is an awesomely Bad Movie!

Half the fun of watching it is cracking on how absurd the entire thing is. The whole deal where they tilt the screen sideways to make it look like Batman and Robin are climbing up a wall is hilarious!

I can't remember if you did Mystery Men last year, any plans on doing that one? One of my all time faves.

I have surpassed 700 Hero Ratings and have my sights set on 800!Thanks to all of my outstanding customers!I am now in the top 20 Stores by inventory and have started to consistently appear in the top 10 for volume of sales.I am always striving to improve my store and will continue to provide the high level of customer service that you are all used to.Hang on, it's going to be a great year!

The exposition is warranted and it pays off. Starting with the opening scene introducing the cosmic baddies, followed by Fury, Colson and Hills interaction, followed by the entire scene surrounding the tesseract and Loki. We don't even see an Avenger (besides a compromised Hawkeye) until 12 minutes into the movie.

I loved the "Dirty Dozen" intro's. each Avenger gets their own welcome scene to the team, and they are all good.

The humour is almost all well placed and not overwhelming, with two exceptions. I loved the part where Cap "gets" a reference. I loved Thor's line about Loki being adopted. I love Starks patter, Colson's initial reaction to being around Cap. Cap slipping Fury ten bucks when the Hellicarrier takes off.etc. etc.

The fight scenes are among the best in all comic movies. The initial Cap V. Loki with an Iron Man assist is amazing. Iron Man V. Thor. Thor V. Hulk. Widow V. Hawkeye......all great.

The entire sequence where the Fit hits the Shan on the Helicarrier is an amazing scene right out of a comic book.....1) Fury and Hill are fighting off the fake SHIELD agents to maintain control of the helicarrier. 2) Captain America and Iron Man are fighting off fake SHIELD agents and fixing the damaged Hellicarrier before it crashes. 3) Black Widow keeps the Hulk busy until Thor arrives, then beats Hawkeye back to his senses. 4) Thor keeps Hulk from destroying the carrier. I mean...AWESOME!

Starks stare down with Loki at the end. "I have an army." "We have a Hulk!"

The entire end fight in new York is so amazing I am not going to waste time saying anything other than that.

The cut scene of Thanos smiling at the thought of courting death, and the hilarious Scwharma scene are both great touches.

The more...character driven moments. I mean, this is a huge action adventure epic, but there are still character driven moments that make you care even more about the characters----Thor trying to convince Loki to come home. Widow and Hawkeye talking after the devastation aboard the carrier. Stark and Banner's conversations. Fury and Cap talking about how the world has changed. All good stuff.

The two Hulk scenes 1)"I'm always angry!" and 2) "Puny God!" They were just perfect. when he turns and destroys that monster as he changes. I mean, perfect!

Colson's death. Some of the best action movies have a key, unexpected death. This is, often, a good thing because it heightens the feeling of uncertainty and suspense of the movie. I.E. If a beloved character like Agent Colson can die, who else might die?

THE BAD

There were two jokes that were jarring and unnecessary. 1) When Widow exclaims "How is this a party?" when the giant monster is flying towards them and 2) when Cap convinces the cops to follow his orders. They both seemed out of place and awfully cliché.

There were some very unbelievable parts. And, I mean, insult our intelligence unbelievable. The most obvious is when Cap, Widow and Hawkeye crash the jet, they all just hop up as if nothing happened, without a scratch on them.

I didn't like how easy the Chitauri were to beat up. I mean one punch from any of the Avengers, even the non-powered ones, put them down for the count. I figure that a bunch of (banned) off New Yorkers with bricks and pipes could hold them off all alone for a while.

I felt Cobie Smolders was outmatched in this movie. She was the only actor that I felt stood out as bad (and that was surprising to me since How I Met Your Mother is one of my favorite shows.)

CONCLUSIONThis movie pays off big time at every opportunity. I felt like this was the big super hero extravaganza I have been waiting for all my life. It will be hard for any other movies to top this. Acting, writing, special effects etc. etc. Just a superior movie all around.

I give it the highest honor of an A+

Suggested Reading:The original volume of the ULTIMATES.Some stores to try for these are B&D Comics Shop, "All in Color for a Dime" and Divide and Conquer, among others of course

Also, George Perez' early run on Vol.1 of Avengers, starting with #141 is pretty reminiscent also. Bamff!!!!, BlueMoon Comics and Geek Chic Comics have a pretty good batch of this run. Of course, so do some other stores.

Well, the opening scene of the movie was Pamela Anderson doing a strip tease while being sprayed with water. That was pretty cool.

Udo Kier, who is a character actor who has been in about a million movies, was pretty cool as Barb's aide kinda dude.

The sets were good. I mean, the world of Steel Harbor was effective. The post apocalyptic type, lawless environment was effectively conveyed.

The bad guy was confident and powerful. The way he was portrayed made it seem as if Barb and the rest of the good guys had no real chance to win.

The bar that Barb owned and her bounty hunter operation that helped keep it running was pretty cool. I wish the whole movie would have been smaller and centered around a bounty case. That might have made this an interesting franchise. maybe.

THE BAD

Pamela Anderson was absolutely awful. First, she OBVIOUSLY did none of her own stunt work (even the most rudimentary things. At one point, her body double/stuntperson appeared as if he was a man. The editing and shot selection was really bad on her stunt scenes.Second, she spoke in this "tough girl" whisper throughout....but was all dolled up and sexy and everything, at the same time. It was horrible acting and a ludicrous attempt.Third, she is so fake. Her body is so surgically altered that it was difficult to take her seriously as a human being, much less the character in the movie.

At one point the bad guy used what could only be called a prop from a sci fi porn movie as a torture device on some woman. It was weird and off putting.

There is a cop who is Barb's enemy, then her friend, then her enemy, then her friend again...and there is no reason ever given for why he changes sides, or why he is on any side to begin with.

As for that cop...the bad guys come into Steel Harbor in force. They have ultimate power and no need for local law enforcement (a fact that is made clear several times). However, for some reason, they keep that cop around and keep depending on him. It's senseless.

The ENTIRE plot is ridiculously cliché. There are freedom fighters who know about a dastardly government plot, and have to get one particular freedom fighter to safety to save the world. Barb is a tough as nails take no sides character, who ends up taking a side. There is a long lost love interest that reasserts itself. So cliché. At every step.

There is a backstory behind the relationships of some of the characters, right? Yep. But, it makes no sense and is stupid and was a waste of time in the movie.

Barb was a soldier in the past. And, there is a flashback. In the flashback, Barb is in an army uniform, but is still all dolled up like a playboy model. it was hilarious (unintentionally).

All of the villains become preening lunatics. Even the powerful, confident head bad guy just becomes a Joker caricature by the end of the movie. It was very disappointing.

The freedom fighters were all about 17 years old, which made it more emotional when they inevitably got killed, but also completely unbelievable.

I really didn't know the names of any of the characters except for Barb Wire and her dog, Camille. It was weird.

There is a scene near the climax of the movie where Barb and her two rebel buddies are trying to escape, but are double crossed by a criminal (that, for some unexplained reason, they trusted) and are trapped--surrounded by dozens of bad guy army dudes. Well, her the policeman that switchs sides for no real reason throughout puts a grenade in her hand. She throws it straight up in the air. EVRY bad guy ducks for cover. Barb and her buddies run into her truck and they get away. Dumbest escape ever.

BOTTOM LINE:

Really crappy movie. There were some scenes that were ok. The sets were effective and actually got me into the mood of the movie, even though the movie itself was horrible. But, the story was clichéd drivel and the acting was deplorable.

I give it a D---bordering on a D minus.

Suggested ReadingYou could pick up the Barb Wire Movie Special from a few stores like; Bamf!!!!, East Bay Comics, Sanctuary Comics or "All In Color for a Dime".Otherwise you could go after the original 9 issue Dark Horse Comics series. Several stores have a nice run of that series, among them; "All In Color for a Dime" again, along with DangerZoneComics and YourPlace2.com's Comic Shoppe.

I really liked the way SHIELD is portrayed in this movie. They are a real global force, with their hands in everything.

I liked the music. especially what played over the end credits, which was also cool. They showed the comic art versions of the characters with the names of the voice actors for each character. A nice touch, I thought.

The power of the hulk was well represented. When he was destroying Chitauri and beating on the Avengers it was effectively done.

I loved Thor. The way he was portrayed and even the weird music that played when he was on screen was cool.

I liked the costumes. I know they essentially came straight from the comics, but they came across well on screen (except for Wasps).

The opening scene got across Cap's heroism and nobility effectively.

I liked it that they showed the team failing at first. The cliché of superhero teams always winning can get a little tired. it was nice to see them lose one before coming together.

I liked it that the team partied together at the end. I mean, I always picture these big celebrations happening after a super hero team has saved the world, but you almost never see it in comics (or movies). So, I liked it that it happened here.

Always good to see Nick Fury as part of the action. Too often he is overlooked as an administrator type character. Fury is a man of action!

The end fight vs. the Hulk was really good.

When the Chitauri spacecraft took down the SHIELD tracking satellite and the astronauts on board burned up re-entering the atmosphere....well, it was chilling. Very effective scene, especially for an animated movie. The scream of the astronaut "WE'RE BURNING U.....!!!" and then the video and audio cut out...

THE BAD

The Chitauri were unexplained. I mean, they were around in World War II. Then they laid low for 60 years and just decided to pop up all of a sudden for no reason. it was stupid. Especially since they were, essentially, unbeatable for most of that 60 years. They could have done whatever they wanted. Why wait? it was never explained so it made no sense.

Also, the Chitauri were invincible.....until they weren't. I HATE when that happens in movies and comics and TV. A villain is all powerful, until the plot calls for them to be beaten. Then, all of a sudden, they aren't. The Avengers took them down easily. I mean, easily. One minute, "nothing short of a Nuke" can beat them. The next second, Wasps stings are blowing up whole ships.

It was too short. This is a rare complaint, but it is true. This movie needed more exposition.

Why, oh why, do they keep banner around working with the super soldier serum that turned him into the Hulk. And....with so little supervision. I mean, this is like leaving a crack addict In charge of your confiscated crack down at the police precinct. I kept wanted to scream at the screen how stupid it was and how obvious it was that it was going to go bad. I laughed when they were surprised that it did. lol.

BOTTOM LINEThis was a pretty good flick. I mean, it didn't feel like a big movie, which is a negative for me, but it was still pretty good. the animation wasn't great, but it was serviceable. I tried hard not to compare it to the Joss Whedon "Avengers" movie that was, for obvious reason, so much better. I give it a high C+

Suggested Reading:This movie is based directly off The original volume of the ULTIMATES.Some stores to try for these are B&D Comics Shop, "All in Color for a Dime" and Divide and Conquer, among others of course

Jack Nicholson was brilliant as the Joker. Truly an iconic performance.

There were a couple of Joker scenes that were just...well...creepy. The scene where he goes back to talk to the burned out corpse after he has chased off the other gang leaders...chilling. The scene where he introduces the now disfigured ex-girlfriend of Grissom was equally chilling.

Gotham City in the movie was friggin' Gotham City. The set design was as good as it gets. In fact, I think that batman writers and artists for decades after this movie patterned their Gotham Cities off the one in the movie.

The Batmobile was awesome. Visually speaking, it was awesome.

Robert Wuhl was effective comic relief as Knox.

The score was great; both the Danny Elfman music and the Prince tunes.

The batcave was really cool.

I liked how they slipped in Batman's origin without beating you over the head with it. This being the first Batman movie in 20 plus years, it was necessary.

I loved the opening scene where Batman beats up the muggers. It was really cool seeing the Bat shadow on the top of the building as the muggers were doing their work. this scene set the tone for the movie.

Nicholson, pre-Joker, was a highlight too. He played a tough as nails, ruthless gang enforcer brilliantly. I loved every scene he was in, particularly his tet a tet with Eckhart, the dirty cop.

The Joker's plot at the end was appropriately comic booky. I mean, if there was even a chance that you could go to a parade and get free money....wouldn't you go?

The batplane was really cool. I was ticked when it was shot down.

Michael Keaton was an effective Bruce Wayne. He played foppish and self absorbed very well.

I especially liked the first scene in Axis Chemicals, when Napier is double crossed. The Batman moving through the chemical plant taking out bad guys was super cool.

I really liked the first time Joker and Bruce go face to face on the courthouse steps after Joker and his goons kill off the rival gang bosses. The way Bruce stares him down quizzically and Joker notices him was pretty cool.

THE BAD:

One of the dumbest scenes in superhero movie history. Batman lines up the Joker in his sights in the Batplane, but manages to completely miss him with a barrage of automatic weapons fire and a couple of missiles, even though the Joker is standing motionless in the middle of a street...then Joker shoots him down with a big gun. Stupid.

Batman kills a whole bunch of people, kind of casually. It doesn't seem off putting in the movie, but being a comic book fan, that is well aware of Batman's aversion to killing, I didn't like it. At one point he actually tells the Joker he is going to kill him.

Napier being revealed as the guy who killed Bruce's parents? It was weird and unnecessary.

Kim Basinger sucks.

I can't believe how easily Alfred just lets her walk into the batcave. I mean, I expected Bruce to fire him on the spot and give Vicki Vale some kind of amnesia pill or something. it was so stupid how easily they give up his secret.

CONCLUSION

This was a great movie. It just felt iconic and genre defining as I was watching it. The cinematography, music, casting choices, acting performances, set design. I mean, they really got it right. A few over the top, intelligence insulting moments keep this from being a masterpiece.

You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.